Online Annual Report 2012

Words of Welcome from the Board of Directors

Dear Readers,

Last year, we made significant progress with our projects for the future – large scale investments into the research facilities and buildings of important research sectors. In April 2012, the ELBE Center for High-Power Radiation Sources was officially handed over to the scientists after the building had been expanded considerably. Thanks to also new lab spaces, the research opportunities have increased significantly.

The neighboring Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory has also been expanded substantially. The facility was handed over to the scientists in November. The building is currently being equipped with an additional capacitor bank as well as six more pulsed cells. That’s why even more researchers from Germany and abroad will be able to conduct experiments with the highest magnetic fields here in the future.

The work on the lab for experiments with liquid metals DRESDYN and the new construction of a Center for Radiopharmaceutical Tumor Research are also making good progress. The construction work of the new proton therapy center at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus (UKD) is almost completed – this is not just a project for the future at the HZDR, but actually a major undertaking for the entire radiation research conducted in Dresden together with the UKD and TU Dresden at the joint OncoRay Center.

These projects for the future will hone our research profile in the sectors matter, energy, and health. In so doing, we’re also, of course, guided by those topics which are relevant to the entire society. For example, the issues revolving around a secure supply of energy and the sustainable use of resources. That’s why we expanded our energy research: With the new Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology, the Helmholtz alliances "LIMTECH“ and “Energy Efficient Chemical Multiphase Processes” which we established last year as well as our participation in the "Helmholtz Energy Materials Characterization Platform.”

We were particularly happy about the news that TU Dresden joined the ranks of the German Universities of Excellence last year. The DRESDEN concept has proven to be an important pillar of support for the future strategic development in the research venue Dresden.

We hope you enjoy reading the next couple of pages of our Online Annual Report 2012!